The cliched answers spilled out first. The Ohio State men’s basketball players know what they are supposed to say about last year’s excruciating 70-66 loss to Wichita State in a regional final of the NCAA Tournament, and they said it at media day yesterday with smiles, vacant eyes and a synthetic sincerity.

The past is past. What’s done is done. There’s no sense in dwelling on a loss, even one that cost them a spot in the Final Four. It’s all about the future now, about the potential for this team, about working hard every day in practice and embracing every opportunity.

“I think in today’s society, most are on to the next thing,” coach Thad Matta said. “Honestly, I think guys are more concerned with going forward than with what’s behind (them).”

All of them are concerned with going forward, and some of them probably never look back. But some of them …

“You don’t move on,” senior guard Aaron Craft said. “It’s still there. I can remember losses in high school that I can think of two plays I could do differently in the game, and it would have changed the outcome. Those stick with you. I think that just happens from being a competitor, and that’s the kind of group we have here.”

The high-school losses still burn inside?

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “ Oh, yeah. They’re there. They’re there.”

In case you’re wondering, that loss to the ninth-seeded Shockers is still there, still tormenting some of them — all of them, probably — with the reminder that a bad first half probably cost them a second straight trip to the Final Four.

“People kind of silently hold on to those things,” junior guard Lenzelle Smith Jr. said. “I’m never going to forget, and I’m pretty sure Aaron is never going to forget. When we came back, a lot of people talked about our success, but in the back of my mind, the only thing that plays is we lost to Wichita State with a chance to go back to the Final Four.

“People won’t say anything now because they’re so excited about this season, and they want to see what we do this year. But a part of me still holds on to that, and I want to use that as a small candle flame to light up this year.”

No one on the team really wants to revisit that painful day in Los Angeles, when the Buckeyes’ chances seemed so good until they played so badly. It only makes sense that players who barely missed a Final Four trip might find themselves shooting a few more free throws or running a few more laps over the summer, somehow trying to find the missing five points that blemished a 29-8 season.

Matta is still looking for them. He kept going back to that game on his laptop while recruiting this summer.

“I don’t let them go,” Matta said. “I can take you through every loss that has ended my season since I’ve been a head coach. I can tell you how and why on every single one of them. Those last ones, you never forget them.

“There was a play in that game early where there was a kicked-ball call, and if there was no call, we were scoring at the other end. It was right in front of our bench. You can see it. I can take you through it. … I can take you through everything.”

He doesn’t have to take some of his players through it. They have got that little replay screen in their mind running their own horror show.

“Usually after losses I can think of plays … specific plays where I made a mistake, where I should have done this, or I should have done that,” Craft said. “You go through times where you feel like you’re over it, and other times it kind of rushes back on you.

“Coaches don’t ever let us forget it either. If we come in and we’re not ready for practice, that’s an easy thing to bring up, because eight of our 10 guys were there. They experienced it. They saw how we approached that game and how we didn’t appreciate the opportunity. So it’s always around.”